Chapters Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Rend gasped as his eyes snapped open, instinctively lashing out at the nearest thing that he could see- which, sadly for him, happened to be a wall. As his black hoof slammed into it, the injured Changeling screamed in pain, recoiling.
Cradling his hoof, his eyes narrowed as he surveyed it. There was a crack in it- something that would easily be fixed by a little resin. Rend opened his jaws, and spat a green sticky goop onto the crack, rubbing it into it. It hurt like Tartarus, but it was necessary. Grimacing, he kept at it. He had been trained for this. Pain was just a sign that it was working, he told himself, as he forced the crack to seal itself.
Slowly, memories came flooding back to him as he became less focused on the singular task of fixing himself up. The entire Hive had attacked Canterlot on his Queen’s orders. He’d been galloping towards the palace, and then everything had gone wrong. Love- so much love, mixed with a tang of friendship. It had erupted from the palace, and he’d stared in horror as he realized that his Queen and her Royal Guard were being carried along with it.
And then it had slammed into him.
And then he had been flying, but not with his wings. The pure energy had been carrying him, and Rend had been screaming, and then he had slammed into something, and then everything had gone dark in a flash of intense pain.
Oh.
“Oh no.” Rend’s eyes widened. The barrier must have expanded and slammed him into the bakery. He must have been knocked unconscious by the impact- a miracle, he realized, that it hadn’t killed him outright- but where were his brothers and sisters? Where was his Queen?
A blood-curdling scream interrupted his pained musings. Rend’s red eyes snapped towards the sound, and narrowed at a terrified looking pony about twelve feet away.
He couldn’t really blame her. Rend was big for a Changeling, and they must have been terrifying to these soft-skinned ponies. Insectoid wings, holes through their hooves, sharp fangs- they were truly horrific to them.
Sometimes he found it kind of ironic that a species that had to survive on love looked so different.
But terrifying was what he wanted. Struggling to his feet, the Changeling gave the pony a fanged grin. He could feel her terror, her fear. Granted, Rend realized, he was a bit surprised that she was so scared. He couldn’t imagine what he looked like, but judging how he felt, he must have been the most beat-up Changeling of all time.
Stalking towards her, the Changeling studied her. She had a white coat, and a blue mane. A picture of a cake was her Cutie-Mark. A baker, perhaps? She didn’t have wings, or a horn, so that meant that she was a… darn it, he couldn’t remember all of the Pony races. He’d never been good at that. Probably one of the reasons he wasn’t an Infiltrator.
“Why don’t you come help me out, food?” He hissed. Changeling voices had a natural hiss to it, even when they chirped. Rend found it was great for terrifying the enemy. It worked wonders when you were taunting Guardsmen or fighting ponies.
As he moved closer, the Pony moved backwards. “S-stay away from me!” She’d stopped screaming, at least. That was something. He didn’t want her to attract any…
“Freeze! Stop where you are!”
… attention. Tartarus.
Swiveling to look at the new arrival, Rend cringed back slightly. He hated himself, but it was almost an involuntary response. Because Gods Above, standing behind what he’d assumed would be easy prey was a Royal Guardsman!
This one also seemed to be one of those Ponies without wings or a horn. Dressed in the golden armor that signified Canterlot’s Elite, this one had a dark brown coat- which was strange enough. He’d thought that all of the Royal Guard were unicorns? Not to mention, white. Probably because it went better with the armor.
But that didn’t matter right now. He was going to tear this fool apart- he was a Soldier of Queen Chrysalis! Rend shook himself and took a step forward, lowering his jagged horn at the Guard. “Two ponies? Lucky me. I need a pick-me-up right now,” he taunted.
Stepping forward, the Stallion gently pushed the frightened Mare behind him. Rend grinned briefly as he felt the surge of affection the mare had for the Guardsman, sucking it up greedily. “How are you still here? The Princess…” He paused, his green eyes briefly flickering to the damaged bakery behind the Changeling. “... oh. But how are you still walking?” He demanded, drawing a confused look from Rend. “The force that you must have been thrown with… heck, the wall came out better than you did!”
“I am a Soldier.” Rend said it proudly but simplify, and he took a menacing step forward. “I was not part of Her Majesty’s Royal Guard. I was not an Elite Infiltrator. But I was the best of my class, and I was part of the first wave of the invasion. An invasion that, if I remember right, you were unable to repel for almost a day.”
If the Royal Guard was annoyed or hurt by the Changeling’s taunting, he didn’t really show it outwardly- although Rend felt a surge of annoyance from him. “You’re in no condition to fight,” he decided. “Stand down- I don’t want to hurt you any worse than you already are. Heck, the cracks in your… skin… are bleeding!”
Rend snorted. “The word is “Chitin,” pony. And you’ll be the one bleeding in a moment. I’m going to tear you limb from limb!” With that, he charged, roaring with anger.
The Baker squeaked and ran, but the Guard held his ground. As Rend approached, he leaped out of the way, but the Changeling was smarter than that. Swinging his head, he caught the Stallion in the side, gouging a line in his Golden Armor, and knocking him away.
“Gah! Stop! I don’t want to hurt you!” The Guard paced nervously, staring at Rend as he circled back from his charge.
The Changeling felt a mixture of hesitation and... compassion?... from the Pony. This was quite annoying, although he took in the compassion anyhow. No sense in wasting free-food.
The Royal Guard sighed, but he stood firm. “No. You’re badly injured, and if I fight back, I could kill you by accident.”
The Changeling’s eyes narrowed as he took in the surge of stubbornness from the Stallion. “So that’s why, huh? You want a pet to experiment on? Going to throw a collar on me, jab some needles in me?”
As the Guard began to protest, he charged again- but the Royal Guard was expecting it. The Stallion slammed a hoof into Rend’s jaw, sending him staggering back. Normally a hit like that wouldn’t phase him, but Chrysalis help him…”
The Guard watched him warily. “No, that isn’t it. But I’m not going to just… execute… you!” Rend snarled again, and prepared to charge… before he felt his legs go out.
Suddenly, he was on the ground, and everything was fading. He saw the Guard running towards him, actual concern in his eyes, fear and anxiousness washing off of him in waves.
“Ha. That’s… funny," Rend gasped. "I got b-… beat… by… someone like… you..."
And then Rend's vision went black.
Author's Note
Alrghty, my first fanfic~! I'm ~~so dead~~ so exicted to be here!
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Rend’s eyes opened, and he immediately wished that they hadn’t. He shut his eyes as the bright lights of… wherever he was… assaulted his senses. God, he hated mornings. The cave was always nice and dark at night, and the mornings weren’t nearly this bright. The soft green glow of energy crystals was far preferable to the harsh lights of…
His eyes snapped open once more as he realized something- he had literally no idea where he was. Jumping to his feet, Rend ignored the aching pain that shot through his limbs. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he surveyed his surroundings. He wasn’t happy with what he saw.
He was on a large white table, splattered with green blood. His own green blood, he realized with a shudder. In the corner of the side of the room he was facing, a large table (not like the one he was on, but still white- why was everything WHITE in here?) with multiple tools strewn across it. Saws, needles, bandages, gauze… even if they didn’t have most of those back in the hive, Rend wasn’t stupid. Those were Doctor’s tools.
Someone had been messing with him while he slept! The Changeling growled and turned around, his mind racing. The guard must have brought him back here so Celestia’s thugs could dissect him. They must not have counted on him waking up again!
Suddenly, a flicker of movement caught his eye. His head swiveled towards it, and he froze. Hoof almost to the door, stood a terrified looking Pegasus in a white lab coat. Even if Rend couldn’t sense her terror, the look on her face would have been enough.
Before he could do anything, the Pony bolted, slamming through the door, screaming something that sounded like “Guards! Guards!”
The Changeling snarled and leaped off of the table, but he almost collapsed again as pain shot through his left hoof. Raising it, he glared at it as if that would somehow make it better.
Some-ling had bandaged it up, and it felt a lot better than it had before, but he doubted that it would hold up well
… And straight into a heavily armored Guard.
Although the Guard may have been bigger, Rend was heavier, even without any armor. His chitin and carapace were just as tough and as heavy as any armor Ponies could dream up. Rend had never quite grasped how they’d been able to fly without dropping like a stone, actually.
Of course, Rend didn’t actually have any time to comprehend this, as suddenly he was on the ground wrestling with some-pony. Slamming the Guardsman into the ground, he bared his fangs, preparing to maul the poor fellow.
“Sedate him, Aura,” the Unicorn grunted, his horn glowing a bright red. “He’s a wild one, and I can’t keep him up in the air forever.” The Pegasus nodded and strode forward, timidly avoiding the flailing monster in front of her.
“I can smell your fear,” Rend snarled at her. “And I’m going to drain you dry.” He was rather satisfied with the spike in her terror, but she still walked past him. The Changeling snarled once again at her, before turning to the now recovering guard he’d tackled.
Funnily enough, it was the pony from before! As he got up, the Changeling laughed maliciously. “Don’t you want another round, pony? I was this close to ripping your throat out!”
The guard sighed, and Rend was extremely annoyed as he realized that the only real emotion that he was emitting was sadness. “Look. You can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” he began, but the Unicorn cut him off.
“Tower! Don’t speak to the thing! He was about to kill you!” The Unicorn was giving off an aura of rage, and Rend decided to encourage him.
“I'm going to kill you too," Rend snarled. "And then I’ll shift into you, and I'm going to go after your family…” The Changeling paused for a moment, pretending to lick his lips. “They always cry when I rip them to shreds."
The Unicorn cried out in anger, and for a split second, his concentration faltered. The levitating Changeling dropped to the ground, and ignoring the pain that shot through his hoof once again, he bared his teeth and stumbled backwards...
… Right into the point of a needle. As he whirled around, he was greeted with the retreating Doctor (Aura, hadn’t the Unicorn called her?), who was holding a mostly empty syringe. As a wave of fatigue went through him, he lunged towards her.
Luckily for Aura, the sedative kicked in almost immediately. As Rend reached her, his vision went blurry again, and he collapsed to the ground. The Pegasus backed away further, and watched as he reached for her weakly.
“I’ll… kill you… monsters…” He muttered, eyes slowly edging closed. W…won’t… won’t fail… my queen…”
And then, for the SECOND time that day, he succumbed to the darkness of sleep.
The third time he woke up, he was grateful that it wasn’t so bloody bright anymore. In fact, it was actually kind of dark. Just how he liked it.
As he got to his hooves once more, he surveyed his surroundings… again. Rend had the distinct feeling that someone out there just wanted him to basically relive this horrible day over and over.
The room was small but not tiny- he had enough room to move around in, at least. The walls were carved stone bricks, and the floor was some kind of carpet. There was a small sleeping bag in the corner as well, and a little table.
Of course, as was immediately evident to Rend, this was a prison cell, if a nicely furnished one. There was a small window about horn high with him, but it had steel bars on it; the door to his cell had a meal slot, and looked like it had been reinforced.
This was… interesting. Rend had expected them to stick him in the darkest, dampest dungeon cell that they could find, and leave him to rot. This was… surprisingly nice, honestly. Why did they put him here, of all places? What was their game? Did they just want to soften him up?
The Changeling trotted over to the sleeping bag and curled up on it. He needed to think, he told himself. He could get out of here. Maybe he could chew away the bars? They were solid steel, though. That would take forever.
Rend briefly toyed with the idea of jumping a guard and impersonating him, but he figured that they would easily
Still, there had to be something, Rend thought desperately. He couldn’t be stuck here. What if they forced Hive Information out of him with a spell? They could do that, right?
And he couldn’t even use magic to escape! Well, he could, but he was terrible at it, he thought remorsefully. He was a soldier, not a mage.
However, his train of thought was interrupted as the door to his cell clicked, and swung open. Jumping to his feet, Rend growled like a caged animal, tensing as three guards entered his new ‘home.’ Two new ponies, and… what was his name? Tower, he realized. That was correct.
“Ok,” Tower began, looking suspiciously at Rend, “we just want to ask you a few questions…”
Author's Note
Wooh, second chapter!
Anyhow, I hope I didn't make his cell too nice. I mean, Celestia is nice- and she has her reasons for giving him this kind of luxury- but there are limits.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Rend did the first thing that came naturally to him.
He backed into the corner of his cell, still growling, his fangs bared; the Changeling could feel the anger and suspicion emanating from the two ponies, although the one called ‘Tower’ was oddly calm. In his position, Rend certainly wouldn’t have been so stoic.
“Why don’t you all screw off and leave me alone to rot, Pony?” He spat, eyes darting from guard to guard. “I won’t tell you anything. After all, you wouldn’t have any reason to leave me alive if I did.”
Tower’s eyes widened in shock, as did the pony on his left. A Pegasus, he realized. Both of them were emanating feelings of horror and revulsion- like they wouldn’t just love to execute a helpless prisoner. Some kind of magic was probably messing with his senses.
The Unicorn on Tower’s left scowled, and Rend felt a surge of anger and pain. The Changeling gave a crooked grin- he could use this to his advantage.
“And you,” he began, snarling at the Pony, cutting off Tower as he began to speak. “Why are you here? Haven’t you suffered enough?” he crooned. “Was your family torn apart by my kind? Who did we take? Your mother? Your father? Perhaps…” Rend lipped his lips, making sure his fangs were visible- “a filly…?”
Rend, of course, had no idea whether he’d hit the target or was grasping at straws at first, until the resulting blast of hatred nearly made him stumble. It had been a safe bet to assume that some-pony in his family had been harmed during the invasion. And it looked like he’d hit the nail on the head- the Unicorn looked like he was about to lunge for his throat.
Thankfully for the Unicorn, the Pegasus put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “He’s trying to aggravate you,” he said softly. “Don’t let him get to you. You don’t want him to win, do you?”
As the Unicorn nodded, slowly calming down, Rend’s expression shifted to one of surprise. It had been quite clear that he had been trying to rile the Stallion up, but how the Pegasus had dealt with it was remarkable. Ponies were usually far more emotional. He was… impressed.
“We would never execute a helpless pon… er, Changeling,” Tower told him, trying to wrestle control of the conversation back into waters he was comfortable with. “We aren’t going to hurt you. Celestia just wants us to talk to you.”
Rend snorted, eyeing the ponies maliciously. “Yes, talk to me. We all know how that goes,” he argued. “You forgot your ‘talking tools,’ by the way-“ The Changeling made air quotes with his hooves- “did you happen to leave your red hot irons and tongs in your barracks?”
Tower shook his head. “No. We aren’t going to resort to such tactics.” The way he said it left the rest implied- like some people. Like them.
Like Rend.
“Oh, because you ponies didn’t put me in a nice little cell to lull me into a soft state?” He hissed. “I’m smarter than that. I’m a Soldier of Queen Chrysalis, pony, and you won’t break me. Unlike how I’m going to break your bones.”
Tower sighed. “Ok, look. I… We’re not going to get anywhere,” he began, “if you don’t cooperate. Sit down, and we can start talking.” He motioned with his head towards the door, and the two guards at his side balked.
“Are you… are you serious, sir?” The Unicorn bellowed. “You want to be ALONE with this monster?”
Tower snorted. “No, I want you to go bring us flowers. Yes, Vance, I want you and Gale to leave. You’ll be right outside the entire time.”
The Pegasus shook her head. “Sir, if we left, he could plant his horn in your neck before we could react. And we probably would be able to take him down, but not before you bled out,” she argued. “I don’t think that-“
As the three ponies continued to argue, Rend stared at them in shock. The pony wanted to be alone with him? Was he insane? Head swiveling back and forth, the Changeling watched them argue with interest. He briefly considered trying to barge past them, but he quickly concluded that he wouldn’t get far.
Finally- it was far too long for his taste- the two ponies walked out the door, and Tower was left alone with the emotion eating monster.
“So, what exactly do you want to know?” The Changeling asked, glaring at him. “The location of my Hive? Special information about our troops? How we infiltrated your super secure wedding?”
Tower shook his head. “Well, some of those things, but right now, all I want to know is your name.”
Rend stared at him for a minute, before sighing. “My name is Rend. Is that good enough for you, pony?”
The pony sighed. “Ok, ok. I just needed it in your words. I admit that it’s a bit obvious. So, next on the list… can you transform for me?”
“No,” Rend said flatly. “I’m not going to shift in front of you.”
The Changeling sighed. “If it’ll shut you up, fine.” That kind of information didn’t seem like it could hurt the Queen, after all. They probably already knew, and just wanted confirmation from a Changeling or something. That was really the only answer that he could come up with. “Ok, so,” he began. “We can basically sense emotions-“
“You can sense them?” Tower interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “You can’t see them?”
The pony blushed. “Uh… sorry. Continue.”
“Wait, so you don’t feed only on love? I thought you guys changed places with a loved one, and…” Seeing the look that Rend was giving him, Tower trailed off.
“Yes, we feed on other things. But love is the best. Pure, delicious, and energizing- something that we all crave,” the Changeling explained. “As for the swapping places with spouses and sisters and brothers and whatnot, yeah, some of us do that. But it takes someone really good to pull it off for long- I know I couldn’t. Changing into some-pony that people don’t already know is a lot easier to pull off.”
Tower nodded. “… huh. And do you know of any Changelings currently posing as any-pony?”
Rend started to answer, but then he clamped his jaws shut and shot the pony an angry glare. “No, I don’t,” he hissed, his voice stone cold.
The Royal Guard nodded. “Ok, then. We can talk again tomorrow, if you’d prefer,” he added, as the Changeling yawned slightly.
Tower nodded. “Gotcha. Would you like me to bring you some reading material?”
Rend stared at him in shock. “… Are you serious?” He roared all of a sudden, causing Tower to flinch back. “I am a PRISONER! Why the hell are you treating me like I’m your FRIEND?” He stalked towards the guard, who backed up as he approached. “I am an enemy of your whole empire,” he snarled. “I would kill every single one of you if I could. Why are you treating me like I’m not a monster?”
Rend fully expected the pony to call in the other guards. That was why they were outside, after all. But Tower just frowned and shook his head. “Because you aren’t. And I don’t believe that. And neither should you.”
He walked out, and the door shut, leaving the Changeling alone with his thoughts.
And his plans.
Author's Note
Welp. Things.